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SPEECH 



HON, DANIEL WEBSTER, 



YOUNG MEN OF ALBANY. 



WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1851. 



^ Gideon & Co., Printers. 



SPEECH 



HON. DANIEL WEBSTER, 






YOUNG MEN OF ALBANY. 



WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1851. 



Gideon & Co., Printers. 




: 



X 






INVITATION TO MR. WEBSTER 



On his journey from Buffalo to New York, Mr. Webster received, before reaching 
Albany, the following letter of invitation, which he accepted : 

To Hon. Daniel Webster: 

Sir : The subscribers having learned that you will probably pass through our city 
early in the ensuing week, respectfully request an opportunity for our citizens generally, 
irrespective of party, and especially the young men of Albany, to testify their admiration 
of your character and talents as an American statesman, and their high appreciation of 
your public services in the councils of the nation. 

They, therefore, respectfully invite you to partake with them of a dinner at Congress 
Hall, on the day of your arrival, or such other day as may suit your convenience. 

They beg leave to add, that if your health will permit you to address our citizens at the 
Capitol, it would afford them great gratification to hear your views upon public affairs 
and the general condition of the country. 



Albany, May 24, 1851. 



Eli Perry, 
John K. Porter, 
William A. Rice, 
James C. Kennedy, 
B. R. Spelman, 
James I. Johnson, 
James Kidd, 
Erastus Corning, 
James H. Armsby, 
James Hall, 
Azor Taber, 
T. Van Vechten, jr., 
Henry H. Martin, 
R. S. Cushman, 
Orlando Meads, 
Abm. Van Vechten, 
R. G. Beard slee, 
L. Sprague Parsons, 
Jerome Fuller, 
R. L. Spelman, 
Lewis Rathbone, 
Isaac Edwards, 
Erastus H. Pease, 
Peter McNaughton, 
Jacob C. Cuyler, 
Ph. C. Fuller, 
Chas. C. Miles, 
John G. Erwin, 
John I. Olmsted, 
James McNaughton, 
Thomas McElroy, 
William Bay, 
G. V. S. Bleecker, 



John C. Spencer, 
Watts Sherman, 
Ezra P. Prentice, 
John Townsend, 
Teunis Van Vechten, 
A. H. Root, 
Thomas W. Olcott, 
Samuel Stevens, 
James D. Wasson, 
Chas. S. Olmsted, 
Archibald McClure, 
Alexander Seward, 
Charles M. Jenkins, 
Gideon Havvley, 
Lew. Benedict, jr., 
C. W. Goddard, 
John McCardle, 
David Wiltsie, 
N. G. King, 
Paul Cushman, 
E. Satterlee, 
Abm. F. Williams, 
R. H. Waterman, 
E. Henley, 
A. W. Lee, 

Richard Van Rensselaer, 
J. S. Colt, 
Jno. F Rathbone, 
S. H. Ransom, 
Chris. Adams, 
G. C. Davidson, 
J. M. B. Davidson, 
Stephen Van Rensselaer, 



Theo. Townsend, 
il. 1' 

Samui I I>. \ 
1 1 . Pumpelly, 

Tibbits, 

r Van V« ■I'liten, 

I. E K« mlrick, 

:i Chapin, 
I I 

cker, 
John i '. Townsend, 
E. Wood, 
Noah I ii 

Andrew McEIroy, 
C. Van I!( mil iiy sen, 
John Newland, 
Amos Dean, 
R. H. Northrop, 
George B. Steele, 
Stephen Clark, 
Rulus H. King, 
Rufus W. Peckham, 
Manns T. Reynolds, 
Jolin Winne, 
Alexander Marvin, 
Alfred Stone, 
James Edward?, 
Lemuel Steele, 
G. G. Hurll, 

I I. I Davidson, 

I >avid Hamilton, 
J. M'Xaughton, 



Smith, 

H. N. Dowd, 
Towns, ml Fondey, 
Thomas Olcott, 

Stevenson, 
John D. Livingston, 
J J. Wyman, 

15. Sanders, 
B. Sanders, 
William Parmelee, 
e] G. Courti 
W. A. Young, 
L. G. Bancroft, 
P. Van Bemhuysen, 
J. N. Cutler, 
John J. Olcott, 
Wm. McEIroy, 
Andrew Kirk," 
G. W. Peckham, 
Maurice E. Viele, 
W. L. Marcy, 
Geo. C. Lee, 
T. Romeyn Beck, 
Wm. A. Corbiere, 
R. V. Dewitt, 
J. C Feltman, 
H. D. Stone, 
J. Molinard, 
Hale Kingsley, 
Moses Patten, 
Wm. W. Frothingnam, 
Silas B. Hamilton. 



DEDICATION. 



TO THE YOUNG MEN OF ALBANY : 

This speech, delivered at their request, is most 
respectfully dedicated: 

"COGITETIS OMNEM DIGNITATEM VESTEAM CUM RePCBLICA CONJUNCTAM 

esse debere. UNA NAVIS EST JAM BONORUM OMNIUM; 

QUAM QUIDEM NOS DAMUS OPERAM, UT EECTAM TENEAMUS. UTINAM 
PROSPEBO CURSU. SED QUICUNQUE VENTI ERUNT AES NOSTRA CEETE 
NON ABEEIT." 



SPEECH. 



[At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of Wednesday, May 28th, Mr. Webster was con- 
ducted by Messrs. Price and Porter, of the Committee of Young Men, to the platform 
which had been erected near the Capitol ; and having seated himself, cheers long and 
loud were given by the assembled multitude, which had been gathering for more than an 
hour, and now stood an immense mass, closely packed together. 

The Hon. J. C. Spencer announced that, at the request of the citizens of Albany, and 
especially the young men, the Hon. DANIEL WEBSTER had consented to address 
them on the present condition of the country and public affairs. 

This announcement was received with renewed cheering.] 

Mr. WEBSTER rose and said : 

Fellow-Citizens: I owe the honor of this occasion, and I esteem it 
an uncommon and extraordinary honor, to the young men of this city of 
Albany, and it is my first duty to express to these young men my grate- 
ful thanks for the respect they have manifested towards me. Neverthe- 
less, nevertheless, young men of Albany, I do not mistake you, or your 
object, or your purpose. I am proud to take to myself whatever may 
properly belong to me, as a token of personal and political regard from 
you to me. But I know, young men of Albany, it is not I, but the cause; 
it is not I, but your own generous attachments to your country; it is not I, 
but the Constitution of the Union, which has bound together your ancestors 
and mine, and all of us, for more than half a century. It is this that has 
brought you here to-day, to testify your regard toward one, who, to the best 
of his humble ability, has sustained that cause before the country. (Cheers.) 
Go on, young men of Albany! Go on, young men of the United States! 
Early manhood is the chief prop and support, the reliance and hope, for 
the preservation of public liberty and the institutions of the land. Early 
manhood is ingenuous, generous, just. It looks forward to a long life of 
honor or dishonor, and it means, by the blessing of God, that it shall be a 



life of honor, of usefulness, and success, in all the professions and pur 
Buits of life, and that it shall close, when close it must, with some claim 
to the gratitude of the country. Goon, then; uphold the institutions to 
which you were born. You are manly and bold. You fear nothing but 
to do wrong; dread nothing but to be found recreant to patriotism and 
your country. 

Gentlemen, I certainly had no expectation of appearing in such an as- 
semblage as this to-day. It is not probable that, for a long time to come, 
I may a^ain address any large meeting of my fellow-citizens. If I should 
not, and if this were the last, or to be among the last of all the occasions on 
which I am to appear before any great number of the people of the coun- 
try, I shall not regret that that appearance was here. I find myself in the 
i olitical capital of the greatest, most commercial, most powerful State of 
the Union. I find myself invited to be here by persons of the highest re- 
spectability, without distinction of party. I consider the occasion as some- 
what august. I know that among those who now listen to me there are 
such as are of the wisest, the best, the most patriotic, and the most ex- 
perienced public and private men in the State of New York. Here are 
governors and ex-governors, here are judges and ex-judges, of high char- 
acter and high station; and here are persons from all the walks of pro- 
fessional and private life, distinguished for talent, and virtue, and emi- 
nence. Fellow-citizens, before such an assemblage, and on such an in- 
vitation, I feel bound to guard every opinion and every expression; to 
speak with precision such sentiments as I advance, and to be careful in 
all that I say, that I may not be misapprehended or misrepresented. I am 
requested, fellow-citizens, by those who invited me, to signify my sen- 
timents on the state of public affairs in this country, and the interesting 
questions winch are before us. 

This proves, gentlemen, that in their opinion there arc questions some- 
times arising, which range above all party, and all the influences, and con- 
siderations, and interests of party. It proves more; it proves that, in 
their judgment, this is a time in which public affairs do rise in importance 
above the range of party, and draw to them an interest paramount to all 
party considerations. If that be not so, I am here without object, and you 
are listening to me for no purpose whatever. 

'I'!,, q, gentlemen, what is the condition of public affairs which makes it 
necessary and proper for men to meet, and confer together on the state of 
tin- country? Wha1 are the ((notions which are overriding, subduing, 
and overwhelming party, uniting honest, well meaning persons to lav party 
aside, to meet and confer tor the general weal? 1 shall, of course, fellow- 
citizens, no' enter at large into many of these questions, nor into any 



lengthened discussion of the state of public affairs, but shall endeavor 
to state what that condition is, what these questions are, and to pro- 
nounce a conscientious judgment of my own upon the whole. 

The last Congress, fellow citizens, passed laws called adjustment mea- 
sures, or settlement measures; laws intended to put an end to certain in- 
ternal and domestic controversies which existed in the country, and some 
of which had existed for a long time. These laws were passed by the 
constitutional majorities of both houses of Congress. They received the 
constitutional approbation of the President. They are the laws of the land. 
To some, or all of them, indeed to all of them, at the time of their pas- 
sage, there existed warm and violent opposition. None of them passed 
without heated discussion. Government was established in each of the 
territories of New Mexico and Utah, but not without opposition. The 
boundary of Texas was to be settled by compromise with that Slate, but 
not without determined and violent resistance. These laws all passed, 
however, and, as they have now become, from the nature of the case, ir- 
repealable, it is not necessary that I should detain you by discussing their 
merits and demerits. Nevertheless, gentlemen, T desire on this and all 
public occasions, in the most emphatic and clear manner to declare, that 
I hold some of these laws, and especially that which provided for the 
adjustment of the controversy with Texas, to have been essential to the 
preservation of the public peace. 

I will not now argue that point, nor lay before you at large the circum- 
stances which existed at that time ; the peculiar situation of things in so 
many of the Southern States ; the fact that many of those States had 
adopted measures for the separation of the Union ; or the fact that Texas 
was preparing to assert her rights to territory which New Mexico thought 
was hers by right, and that hundreds and thousands of men, tired of the 
ordinary pursuits of private life, were ready to rise and unite in any enter- 
prise that might open itself to them, even at the risk of a direct conflict 
with the authority of this Government. I say, therefore, without going 
into the argument with any details, that in March of 1850, when I found it 
my duty to address Congress on these important topics, it was my conscien- 
tious belief, still unshaken, ever since confirmed, that if the controversy 
with Texas could not be amicably adjusted, there must, in all probability, 
have been civil war and civil bloodshed ; and in the contemplation of such 
a prospect, it appeared of little consequence on which standard victory should 
perch; although, in such a contest, we took it for granted that no opposition 
could arise to the authority of the United States, that would not be sup- 
pressed. But what of that ? I was not anxious about the military conse- 
quences of things ; I looked to the civil and political state of things and 



10 

their results, and I inquired what would be the condition of the country if, 
in this state of agitation, if, in this vastly extended, though not generally 
pervading feeling at the South, war should breakout, and bloodshed should 
ensue in that extreme of the Union ? That was enough for me to inquire 
into and regard ; and, if the chances had been but one in a thousand that 
civil war would have been the result, I should still have felt that that one 
thousandth chance should be guarded against by any reasonable sacrifice, 
because, gentlemen, sanguine as I am for the future prosperity of the coun- 
try : strongly as I believe now, after what has passed, and especially after 
those measures to which 1 have referred, that it is likely to hold together, 
I yet believe firmly that this Union, once broken, is utterly incapable, ac- 
cording to all human experience, of being re-constructed in its original char- 
acter, of being re-cemented by any chemistry, or art, or effort, or skill of man. 
, gentlemen, let us pass from those measures which are now accom- 
plished and settled. California is in the Union and cannot be got out; 
the Texas boundary is settled, and cannot be disturbed; Utah and New 
Mexico are territories, under provision of law, according to accustomed 
usage in former cases, and these things may be regarded as finally adjusted. 
But then there was another subject, equally agitating and equally irritating, 
which, in its nature, must always be subject to consideration or proposed 
amendment, and that is, the fugitive slave law of 1S50, passed at the same 
a of Congress. 
Allow me to advert, very shortly, to what I consider the ground of that 
law. You know, and I know, that it was very much opposed in the Northern 
States ; sometimes with argument not unfair, often by mere ebullition of 
party, and often by those whirlwinds of fanaticism that raise a dust and 
blind the eves, but produce no other effect. Now, gentlemen, this question 
ot the proprietj of the fugitive slave law, or the enactment of some such 
law, is a question that must be met. Its enemies will not let it sleep or 
slumber. They will "give neither sleep to their eyes nor slumber to their 
eyelids" so long as they can agitate it before the people. It is with them 
a topic, a desirable topic, and all know who have much experience in po- 
litical affairs, that for party men, and in party times, there is hardly any- 
thing so desirable as a topic. (Laughter.) Now, gentlemen, lam ready 
to meet this question. J am ready to meet it, and ready to say that it was 
. proper, expedient and just, that a suitable law should be passed for 
the restoration of fugitive slaves, found in free States, to their owners in 
BlaV( I am ready to say that, because 1 only repeat the words of 

the Constitution itself, and i amnol afraid of being considered a plagiarist, 
nor a feeble in I i r men's language and sentiments, when I re- 

• and announce to ever} payt of the country, to you, here, and al 



11 



all times, the language of the Constitution of my country. (Loud cheers.) 
Gentlemen, before the Revolution, slavery existed in the Southern States, 
and had existed there, for more than a hundred years. We of the North 
were not guilty of its introduction. That generation of men, even in the 
South, were not guilty of it. It had been introduced according to the 
policy of the mother country, before there was any independence in the 
United States ; indeed, before there were any authorities in the colonies 
competent to resist it. Why, gentlemen, men's opinions have so changed 
on this subject, and properly, the world has come to so much juster senti- 
ments, that we can hardly believe, what is certainly true, that at the peace 
of Aix la Chapelle, in 1748, the English Government insisted on the ful- 
filment, to its full extent, of a condition in the treaty of the Assiento, 
signed at Utrecht, in 1713, by which the Spanish Government had granted 
the unqualified and exclusive privilege to the British Government of im- 
porting slaves into the Spanish colonies in America ! That was not then 
repugnant to public sentiment ; happily such a contract would be execrated 



now. 



I allude to this, only to show, that the introduction of slavery into the 
Southern States is not to be visited upon the generation that achieved the 
Independence of this country. On the contrary, all the eminent men of 
that day regretted its existence. And you, my young friends of Albany, 
if you will take the pains to go back to the debates of the period, from the 
meeting of the first Congress in 1774, I mean the Congress of the Confed- 
eration, to the adoption of the present Constitution, and the enactment of 
the first law under the existing Constitution, you and anybody who will make 
that necessary research, will find that Southern men and Southern States, 
as represented in Congress, lamented the existence of slavery in far more ear- 
nest and emphatic terms than the Northern; for, though it did exist in the 
Northern States, it was a feeble taper, just going out, soon to end, and 
nothing was feared from it: while leading men of the South, of Virginia and 
the Carolinas, felt and acknowledged that it was a moral and political evil; 
that it weakened the arm of the freeman, and kept back the progress and 
success of free labor, and they said with truth, and all history verifies the 
observation, "that if the shores of the Chesapeake had been made as free 
to free labor as the shores of the North river, New York might have been 
great, but Virginia would have been great also." That was the sentiment. 
^ Now, under this state of things, gentlemen, when the Constitution was 
framed, its framers, and the people who adopted it, came to a clear, ex- 
press, unquestionable stipulation and compact. There had been an an- 
cient practice, a practice for a century, for aught I know, according 



12 

to which : . whether apprentices at the North, or slaves 

at fi i, should be restored. M issachusetts had restored fugitive 

.-laws t.) Virginia lung before the adoption of the Constitution, and it is 
well known that in other State.-, in which slavery did or did not exist, they 
were restored also, on proper application. And it was held that any man 
could pursue his -lave and take him wherever he could find him. Under 
this state of things, it was expressly stipulated, in the plainest language, 
and there it .-lands; sophistry cannot gloss it, it cannot be erased from the 
page vi the Constitution; there it stands; that persons held to service or 
labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall 
not, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from 
such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, upon claim of the party 
to whom such service or labor shall be due. This was adopted without 
dissent, nowhere objected to, north or south, but considered as a matter 
of absolute right and justice to the Southern Slates, concurred in every- 
where, by every State that adopted the Constitution; and we look in vain 
for any opposition, from Massachusetts to Georgia. 

Then, this being the case, this being the provision of the Constitution, it 
was found necessary, in General Washington's time, to pass a law to carry 
that provision of the Constitution into effect. Such a law was prepared and 
passed. It was prepared by a gentleman from a Northern State. It is said 
to have been drawn up by Mr. Cabot, of Massachusetts. It was supported 
by him, and by Mr. Goodhue, and by Mr. Sedgwick, of Massachusetts, and 
generally by all the free States. It passed without a division in the Senate, 
and with but seven votes against it in the House. It went into operation, 
and, for a time, it satisfied the just rights and expectations of everybody. 
That law provided that its enactments should be carried into effect mainly 
by State magistrates, justices of the peace, judges of State courts, sheriffs, 
and other organs of State authority. So things went on without loud com- 
plaints from any quarter, until some fifteen years ago, when some of the 
States, the free States, thought it proper for them to pass laws prohibiting 
their own magistrates and officers from executing this law of Congress, 
under heavy penalties, and refusing to the United States' authorities the 
! their prisons for the detention of persons arrested as fugitive slaves. 
That i- to say. these State< passed acts defeating the law of Congress, as 
far as was in their power to defeat it. Those of them to-which I refer, 
not all, hut Beveral, nullified the law of 1793 entirely. They said "We will 
Ute it. No runaway slave >hall be restored." Thus the law be- 
•' a dead letter, an entire dead letter. Bui here was the constitutional 
compa< i, nevertheles . -till binding; here was the stipulation, as solemn as 



13 

words could form it, and which every member of Congress, every oilicer 
of the General Government, every officer of the State governments, from 
governors down to constables, are sworn to support. Well, under this state 
of things, in 1850, 1 was of opinion that common justice and good faith called 
upon us to make a law, fair, reasonable, ecpiitable andjust, that should be cal- 
culated to carry this constitutional provision into effect, and give the South- 
ern States what they were entitled to, and what it was intended originally 
they should receive, that is, a fair, right, and reasonable means to recover 
their fugitives from service from the States into which they had fled. I was of 
opinion that it was the bounden duty of Congress to pass such a law. The 
South insisted they had a right to it, and I thought they properly so in- 
sisted. It was no concession, no'yielding of anything, no giving up of any- 
thing. When called on to fulfil a compact, the question is, will you fulfd 
it ? And, for one, I was ready. I said, " I will fulfil it by any fair and 
reasonable act of legislation." Now, the law of 1S50 had two objects, 
both of which were accomplished : First, it was to make the law more 
favorable for the fugitive than the law of 1793. It did so, because it called 
for a record, under seal, from a court in the State from which the fugitive 
came, proving and ascertaining that he was a fugitive, so that nothing 
should be left, when pursued into a free State, but to produce the proof of 
his identity. Next, it secured a higher tribunal, and it placed the power 
in more responsible hands. The judges of the Supreme and District 
Courts of the United States, and learned persons appointed by them as 
commissioners, were to see to the execution of the law. Therefore, it was 
a more favorable law, in all respects, to the fugitive, than the law passed 
under General Washington's administration in 1793. And the second ob- 
ject was to carry the constitutional provision into effect by the authority 
of law, seeing that the States had prevented the execution of the former 
law. 

Now, let me say that this law has been discussed, considered, and ad- 
judged in a great many of the tribunals of the country'. It has been the 
subject of discussion before judges of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, the subject of discussion before courts the most respectable in the 
States. Everywhere, on all occasions, and by all judges, it has been hold- 
en to be, and pronounced to be, a constitutional law. So say Judges 
McLean, Nelson, Woodbury, and all the rest of the judges, as far as I 
know, on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States. So says 
the unanimous opinion of Massachusetts herself, expressed by as good a 
court as ever sat in Massachusetts, its present supreme court, unanimous- 
ly, and without hesitation. And so says everybody, eminent for learning, 



u 

and constitutional law, and good judgment, without opposition, without 
intermixture of dissent, or difference of judicial opinion anywhere. And I 
hope I may be indulged on this occasion, gentlemen, partly on account of 
a high personal regard, and partly for the excellence and ability of the pro- 
duction, to refer you all to a recent very short opinion of Mr. Prentiss, the 
district judge of Vermont. (Applause.) True, the case before him did not 
turn so much on the question of the constitutionality of this law, as upon 
the unconstitutionality, and illegality, and utter inadmissibility, of the no- 
tion of private men and political bodies setting up their own whims, or 
their own opinions, above it, on the idea of the higher law that exi ts 
somewhere between us and the third heaven, I never knew exactly where. 
( Cries of "good," and laughter.) 

All judicial opinions are in favor of this law. You cannot find a man 
in the profession in New York, whose income reaches thirty pounds a year, 
who will stake his professional reputation on an opinion against it. If he 
does, his reputation is not worth the thirty pounds. (Renewed laughter.) 
Aud yet this law is opposed, violently opposed, not by bringing this ques- 
tion into court: these lovers of human liberty, these friends of the slave, 
the fugitive slave, do not put their hands in their pockets and draw funds 
to conduct law suits, and try the question; they are not in that habit much. 
(Laughter.) That is not the way they show their devotion to liberty of 
any kind. But they meet and pass resolutions; they resolve that the law 
is oppressive, unjust, and should not be executed at any rate, or under 
any circumstances. It has been said in the States of New York, Massa- 
chusetts, and Ohio, over and over again, that the law shall not be exe- 
cuted. That was the language of a convention in Worcester, in Massa- 
chusetts; in Syracuse, New York, and elsewhere. And for this they 
pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor! (Laughter.) 
Now, gentlemen, these proceedings, I say it upon my professional reputa- 
tion, are distinctly treasonable. Resolutions passed in Ohio, certain reso- 
lutions in \c\\ York, and in the conventions held in Boston, are distinctly 
treasonable. And the act of taking away Shadrach from the public 
authorities in Boston, and sending him off, was an act of clear treason. 
I sp< ak tin- in the hearing of men who are law r yers; I speak it out to the 
country; I Bay it everywhere, on my professional reputation. It wastrea- 
Bon, and nothing less; thai is to say, if men get together, and combine 
togeth< r, and resolve that they will oppose a law of the Government, not 
in any one ca '•, bul in all cases; 1 say if they resolve to resist the law, 
whoever may be attempted to be made the subject of it, and carry that 
purpi -<• into effect, bj resisting the application of the law in any one case, 



15 

either by force of arms or force of numbers, that, sir, is treason. (Turn- 
ing to Mr. Spencer, and stamping with emphasis. ) You know it well. 
(Continuing to address Mr. Spencer.) The resolution, itself, unacted on, 
is not treason; it only manifests a treasonable purpose. When this pur- 
pose is proclaimed, and it is proclaimed that it will be carried out in all 
cases, and is carried into effect, by force of arms or numbers, in any one 
case, that constitutes a case of levying war against the Union; and if it 
were necessary, I might cite, in illustration, the case of John Fries, con- 
victed in Washington's time, for being concerned in the whiskey insurrec- 
tion in Pennsylvania. Now, various are the arguments, and various the 
efforts, to denounce this law; to oppose its execution; to keep it up as a 
question of agitation and popular excitement; and they are as diverse as the 
varied ingenuity of man, and the aspect of such questions when they come 
before the public. And a common thing it is to say that the law is odious; 
that therefore, it cannot be executed, and will not be executed. That has 
always been said by those who do not mean it shall be executed; not by 
anybody else. They assume the fact, that it cannot be executed, to make 
that true which they wish shall turn out to be true. They wish that it 
shall not be executed, and, therefore, announce to all mankind that it can- 
not be executed. 

When public men, and the conductors of newspapers of influence and 
authority, thus deal with the subject, they deal unfairly with it. Those 
who have types at command, have a perfect right to express their opin- 
ions; but I doubt their right to express opinions as facts. I doubt whether 
they have a right to say, not as a matter of opinion, but of fact, that this 
particular law is so odious, here and elsewhere, that it cannot be exe- 
cuted. That only proves that they are of opinion that it ought not, that 
they hope it may not, be executed. They do not say, "See if any wrong 
is inflicted on anybody by it, before we wage war upon it; let us hope to 
find in its operation no wrong or injury to anybody. Let us give it a fan- 
experiment." Do any of them hold that language? Not one. "The 
wish is father to the thought." They wish that it may not be executed, 
and therefore they say it cannot and will not be executed. That is one 
of the modes of presenting the case to the people; and, in my opinion, it 
is not quite a fair mode of doing it. There are other forms and modes; 
and I might omit to notice the blustering Abolition societies of Boston 
and elsewhere, as unworthy of regard; but there are other forms more 
insidious, and equally efficacious. There are men who say, when you 
talk of amending that law, that they hope it will not be touched. You 
talk of attempting it, and they dissuade you. They say, "Let it remain 



10 

as obnoxious as it can be, and bo much the sooner it will disgust, and be 
detested by, the whole community." 

I am grieved to Bay that such sentiments have been avowed by those 
in Massachusetts who ought to be ashamed, utterly ashamed, to express 
such opinions. Fur, what do they mean ? They mean to make the 
law obnoxious; bo obnoxious that it shall not be executed. But still they 
BUggesI no other law; they oppose all amendment; oppose doing anything 
that shall make it less distasteful. What do they mean ? They mean, 
and they know it, that there shall exist no law whatever for carrying into 
effect this provision of the Constitution of the country, if they can pre- 
vent it, let the consequences be what they may. They wish to strike out 
this constitutional provision; to annul it- They oppose it in every possi- 
ble form short of personal resistance, or incurring personal danger; and to 
do this, they say the worse the law is the better. They say we have now 
a topic, and for mercy's sake don't amend the horrible law of 1850. 
(Laughter.) Then, again, they say, "We are for an eternal agitation 
and discussion of this question; the people cannot be bound by it. Every 
member of Congress has the right to move the repeal of this as well as 
any other law." Who does not know this, gentlemen ? A member must 
act according to his own discretion. No doubt he has a right to-morrow, 
if Congress were in session, to move a repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law; 
but this takes with it another consideration. 

He has just as much right to move to tear down the Capitol, until one 
stone shall not be left on another; just as much right to move to disband 
the army, and to throw the ordnance and arms into the sea. He has just 
as much right to move that all the ships of war of the United States shall 
be collected and burned; an illumination like that which lit up the walls of 
ancient Troy. He may move to do any of these things. The question is, Is 
he prudent, wise; a real friend of the country, or adverse to it ? That is all. 
And a greater question lies behind : Will the people support him in it ? 
1- it the result of the good sense of the Northern people, that the question 
shall have neither rest nor quiet, but shall be constantly kept up as a topic 
of agitation ? I cannot decide this question for the people, but leave 
them to decide it for themselves. And now, gentlemen, this is a serious 
question, whether the Constitution can be maintained in part and not in 
whole ? Whether those interested in the preservation of one part of it, 
finding their interests in thai particular abandoned, are not likely enough, 
irdingtoall experienced human feeling and human conduct, to dis- 
card thai portion which was introduced, not for their benefit, hut for the 
! ' ! of others ? Thai is the question. For one, I confess, I do not see 



17 

any reasonable prospect of maintaining the Constitution of the United 
States, unless we maintain it as a whole; impartially, honorably, patrioti- 
cally. Gentlemen, I am detaining you too long; but allow me a few words 
on another subject, by way of illustration. 

The Constitution of the United States consists in a series of mutual 
agreements or compromises, one thing being yielded by the South, another 
by the North; the general mind having been brought together, and the 
whole agreed to, as I have said, as a series of compromises constituting 
one whole. Well, gentlemen, who does not see that ? Had the North, 
no particular interest to be regarded and protected ? Had the North no 
peculiar interest of its own ? Was nothing yielded by the South to the 
North ? Gentlemen, you are proud citizens of a great commercial State. 
You know that New York ships float over the whole world, and bring 
abundance of riches to your own shores. You know that this is the result 
of the commercial policy of the United States, and of the commercial power 
vested in Congress by the Constitution. And how was this commerce 
established ? by what constitutional provisions, and for whose benefit ? 
The South was never a commercial country. The plantation States 
were never commercial. Their interest always was, as they thought, 
what they think it to be now, free trade, the unrestricted admission of 
foreigners in competition in all branches of business with our own people. 
But what did they do ? They agreed to form a Government that should 
regulate commerce according to the wants and wishes of the Northern 
States, and when the Constitution went into operation, a commercial sys- 
tem was actually established, on which has risen up the whole glory of 
New York and New England. (Applause.) 

Well, what did Congress do under a Northern lead with Southern ac- 
quiescence ? What did it do ? It protected the commerce of New York 
and the eastern States, by preference, by a way of tonnage duties; and 
that higher tonnage on foreign ships has never been surrendered to 
this day, but in consideration of a just equivalent; so, in that respect, with- 
out grudging or complaint on the part of the South, but generously and 
fairly, not by way of concession, but in the true spirit of the Constitution, 
the commerce of New York and the New England States was pro- 
tected by the provision of the Constitution to which I have referred. But 
that is not all. 

Friends! Fellow-citizens! Men of New York! Does this country not 
now extend from Maine to Mexico, and beyond ? And have we not a State 
beyond Cape Horn, belonging nevertheless to us as part of our commer- 
cial system ? And what does New York enjoy ? What do Massachusetts 
and Maine enjoy ? They enjoy an exclusive right of carrying on the 



18 

coasting trade from to State to State, on the Atlantic and around Cape 
Horn to the Pacific. And that is a most highly important branch of busi- 

9, and source of wealth and emolument, of comfort and good living. 

ry m m must know this, who is not blinded by passion or fanaticism. 
It i- this exclusive right to the coasting trade which the Northern States 
possess, which was granted to them, which they have ever held, and which, 
up to this day, there has been no attempt to rescue from them; it is this 
which has employed so much tonnage and so many men, and given support 
to so many thousands of our fellow-citizens. Now, what would you say, 
in this day of the prevalence of notions of free trade, what would you 
say, if the South and the West were to join together to repeal this law? And 
they have the votes to doit to-morrow. What would you say if they should 
join hands and resolve that these men of the North and New England, 
who put this slight on our interest, shall enjoy this exclusive privilege no 
longer ? That they will throw it all open, and invite the Dane, the Swede, 
the Hamburger, and all the commercial nations of Europe who can carry 
cheaper, to come in and carry goods from New York coastwise on the 
Atlantic, and to California on the Pacific ? What do you say to that ? 

Now, gentlemen, these ideas have been a thousand times suggested, 
perhaps, but if there is anything new in them, I hope it may be regarded. 
But what was said in Syracuse and Boston; it was this : "You set up 
profit against conscience; you set up the means of living; we go for con- 
science." (Laughter.) That is a flight of fanaticism. All I have to 
answer is, that if what we propose is right, fair, just, and stands well with 
a conscience not enlightened with those high llights of fancy, it is none 
the worse for being profitable; and that it does not make a thing bad which 
is good in itself, that you and I can live on it, and our children be sup- 
ported and educated by it. If the compact of the Constitution is fair, 
and was fairly entered into, it is none the worse, one should think, for its 
having been found useful. (Renewed applause.) Gentlemen, I believe, 
in Cromwell's time, for I am not very fresh in my recollections of that 

ric period, I have had more to do with other things than some of you 
younger men that love to look into the instructive history of that age, but 
1 think it was in Cromwell's time, that there sprang up a race of saints 
who called themselves " fifth monarchy men;" and a happy, felicitous, 
glorious people they were; for they had practised so many virtues, they 
e bo enlightened, so perfect, that they got to be, in the language of that 
day, ordinances." That is the higher law of this day exactly. 

1. lighter.) Our higher law is bui the old doctrine of the fifth monarchy 
men, of Cromwell's time, revived. They were above ordinance-, walked 

I firm and Bpruce, sell satisfied, thankful to Cod that they were not as 



19 

other men, but had attained so far to salvation as to be " above all neces- 
sity of restraint or control, civil or religious." (Renewed laughter.) 
Cromwell himself says of these persons, if I remember rightly, " that 
notions will hurt none but those that have them; but when they tell us, 
not that law is to regulate us, but that law is to be abrogated and subver- 
ted, and perhaps the Judaical law brought in, instead of our own laws set- 
tled among us," this is something more than a notion, " this is worthy 
of every magistrate's consideration." 

Gentlemen, we live under a Constitution. It has made us what we are. 
What has carried the American flag all over the world ? What has con- 
stituted that unit of commerce, that wherever the stars and stripes are 
seen, they signify that it is America and united America ? What is it 
now that represents us so respectably all over Europe ? in London at this 
moment, and all over the world? What is it but the result of those com- 
mercial regulations which united us all together, and made our commerce, 
the same commerce; which made all the States, New York, Massachusetts, 
South Carolina, in the aspect of our foreign relations, the same country, 
without division, distinction, or separation ? Now, gentlemen, this was the 
original design of the Constitution. We, in our day, must see to it; and it 
will be equally incumbent on you, my young friends of Albany, to see that 
while you live, this spirit is made to pervade the whole administration of 
the Government. The Constitution of the United States, to keep us uni- 
ted, to keep a fraternal feeling flowing in our hearts, must be administered 
in the spirit in which it was framed. And if I were to exhibit the spirit 
of the Constitution in its living, speaking, animated form, I Avould refer 
always, always, to the administration of the first President, George Wash- 
ington. (Vehement cheering.) And if I were now to describe a patriot 
President, I would draw his master-strokes and copy his design ; I would 
present his picture before me as a constant study ; I would present his 
policy, alike liberal, just, narrowed down to no sectional interests, bound 
to no personal objects, held to no locality, but broad, and generous, and 
open, as expansive as the air which is wafted by the winds of heaven from 
one part of the country to another. (Cheers.) 

I would draw a picture of his foreign policy, just, steady, stately, but 
withal proud, and lofty, and glorious. No man could say, in his day, that 
the broad escutcheon of the honor of the Union could receive injury or 
damage, or even contumely or disrespect, with impunity. His own char- 
acter gave character to the foreign relations of the country. He upheld 
every interest of the United States in even the proudest nations of Europe; 
and while resolutely just, he was resolutely determined that no plume in 
the honor of the country should ever be defaced or taken from its proper 



30 

i >'i by any power on earth. Washington was cautious and prudent; 
self-seeker ; giving information to Congress, according to the Constitu- 
tion, on all questions, when necessary, with fairness and frankness, claim- 
ing nothing tor himself, exercising his own rights, and preserving the 
dignity of his station, but taking especial care to execute the laws as a 
paramount duty, and in such manner as to give satisfaction to all just and 
reasonable men. And it was always remarked of his administration, that 
he filled the courts of justice with the most spotless integrity, the highest 
talent, and the purest virtue ; and hence it became a common saying, 
running through all classes of society, that our great security is in the 
learning and integrity of the judicial tribunals. This high character they 
justly possessed, and continue to possess in an eminent degree from the 
impress which Washington stamped on these tribunanls at their first 
organization. 

Gentlemen, a patriot President of the United States is the guardian, 
the protector, the friend of every citizen in them. He should be, and he 
10 man's persecutor, no man's enemy, but the supporter and the pro- 
tector of all and every citizen, so far as such support and protection depend 
on his faithful execution of the laws. But there is especially one great 
idea which Washington presents, and which governed him, and which 
should govern every man in high office, who means to resemble Washing- 
ton : that is, the duty of preserving the Government itself; of suffering, so 
far as depends on him, no one branch to interfere with another, and no 
power to be assumed not belonging to each, and none abandoned which 
pertains to each ; but to preserve it and carry it on unharmed for the ben- 
efit of the present and future generation. 

Gentlemen, a wise and prudent shipmaster makes it his first duty to 
preserve the vessel which carries him, and his passengers, and all that is 
committed to his charge ; to keep her afloat, to conduct her to her destined 
port with entire security of property and life ; that is his first object, and 
that should be the object, and is, of every Chief Magistrate of the United 
States, who has a proper appreciation of his duty. His first and highest 
duty is to preserve the Constitution which bears him, which sustains the 
I ernment, without which every thing goes to the bottom; to preserve 
that, and keep it, with the utmost of his ability and foresight, off the rocks 
and shoals, and away from the quick-sands; to accomplish this great end, 
he exercises the caution of the experienced navigator. He suffers nothing 
to betray his watchfulness, or to draw him aside from the great interesl 
committed to his care; but is always awake, always solicitous, alv 



21 

anxious, for the safety of the ship which is to carry him through the stormy 
seas. 

" Though pleased to see the dolphins play, 
He minds his compass and his way ; 
And oft he throws the wary lead, 
To see what dangers may be hid : 
At helm he makes his reason sit , 
His crew of passions all submit. 
Thus, thus he steers his barque, and sails, 
On upright keel, to meet the gales ! " 

Now, gentlemen, a patriot President, acting from the impulses of this 
high and honorable purpose, may reach what Washington reached. He 
may contribute to raise high the public prosperity, to help to fill up the 
measure of his country's glory and renown ; and he may be able to find 
a rich reward in the thankfulness of the people, 

" And read his history in a nation's eyes." 



MR. SPENCER'S SPEECH 

AT THE 

DINNER Gil IN TO MR. WEBSTER, AT ALBANY, WEDNESDAY EVENING. 



Mr. SPENCER rose and addressed the company as follows: 

I am about to offer a sentiment, my friends, which you expect from the 
chair. The presence of the distinguished guest whom we have met to 
honor, imposes restraints which may not be overleaped. Within those 
limits, and without offending the generous spirit which has on this occa- 
sion discarded all political and partisan feeling, I may recall to our recol- 
lections a few incidents in his public life, which have won for him the proud 
title of " Defender of the Constitution.'' (Great applause.) 

When in l&32-'33, South Carolina raised her paricidal arm against our 

common mother, and the administration of the Government was in the 

hands of that man of determined purpose and iron will, Andrew Jackson, 

whose greatest glory was his inflexible resolution to sustain the Union or 

perish with it, (here the speaker was interrupted by deafening shouts of 

applause,) in that dark and gloomy day, where was our guest found ? Did 

he think of paltry politics, of how much his party might gain by leaving 

their antagonists to fight the battle of the Union between themselves, and 

thus become a prey to their watchful opponents ? No, gentlemen; you 

know what he did. He rallied his mighty energies, and tendered them 

openly and heartily to a political chieftain whose administration he had 

constantly opposed. (Cheers upon cheers.) He breasted himself to the 

storm. Where blows were thickest and heaviest, there was he ; and when 

he encountered the great champion of the South, Colonel Hayne, in that 

immortal, intellectual struggle, the parallel of which no country has wit- 

sedj the hopes, the breathless anxiety of a nation, hung upon his 

irts; and, oh, what a shout of joy and gratulation ascended to heaven, 

at the matchless victory which he achieved. (Here, for some time, the 

inable to proceed, in conseqtfence of the incessant and tumul- 

ch( iring of the company, who had spontaneously risen from their 

Had he then been called to his fathers, the measure of his fame 

Jd have bi en full to overflowing, and he would have left a monument 

in the grateful recollection ol his countrymen, such as no statesman of 

modern tim< had reared. (Renewed applause.) But he was reserved 

kind Providence for greater • For more than twenty years, in 



23 

the Senate Chamber, in the courts of justice, and in the executive coun- 
cils, he has stood sentinel over the Constitution. It seems to have been 
the master passion of his life to love, to venerate, to defend, to fight for 
the Constitution, at all times and in all places. (Cheers upon cheers.) 
He did so because the Union existed and can exist only in the Constitu- 
tion ; and the peace and happiness of the country can exist only in the 
Union. In fighting for the Constitution, he fought therefore for the coun- 
try, for the whole country. 

I may not speak in detail of the many acts of his public life which have 
developed this absorbing love of country. But there are a few of the pre- 
cious gems in the circlet which adorns his brow, that are so marked and 
prominent that they cannot be overlooked. 

When he first assumed the duties of the Department of State, war was 
lowering on our horizon like a black cloud, ready to launch its thunder- 
bolts around us. The alarming state of our foreign relations, at that time, 
is shown by the extraordinary fact that the appropriation bills passed by 
Congress, at the close of Mr. Van Buren's administration, contained an un- 
usual provision, authorizing the President to transfer them to military pur- 
poses. In a few months after our guest took the matter in hand, the cele- 
brated treaty with Lord Ashburton was concluded, by which the irritating 
question of boundary was settled, every difficulty then known or antici- 
pated was adjusted, and among others, the detestable claim to search our 
vessels for British seamen was renounced. 

In connexion with this treaty, I take this occasion, the first that has 
presented itself, to state some facts which are not generally known. The 
then administration had no strength in Congress ; it could command no 
support, for any of its measures. This was an obstacle sufficiently formi- 
dable in itself. But Mr. Webster had to deal with a feeble and wayward 
President, an unfriendly Senate, a hostile House of Representatives, and 
an accomplished British diplomatist. I speak of what I personally know, 
when I say, that never was a negotiation environed with greater or more 
perplexing difficulties. He had at least three parties to negotiate with 
instead of one, to say nothing of Massachusetts and Maine, who had to be 
consulted in relation to a boundary that affected their territory.* You 



*For the purpose of explanation it may be well to say, that the Northeastern Boundary 
having been a matter of controversy for fifty years, and the award of the King of the 
Netherlands having finally failed, Mr. Webster proposed that a line should be established 
by agreement, upon the principle of fair equivalents, to be assented to by Massachusetts 
and Maine; accordingly Massachusetts appointed three commissioners and Maine four, 
selected from both political parties, to proceed to Washington, and take part in the ne- 
gotiations. The consent of all the commissioners was made the condition of binding their 
respective States. It will thus be seen that the difficulty of making a treaty, when so 
many and such diverse interests were to be harmonized, was immeasurably increased. 



24 

know the result ; glorious as it was to our country, how glorious was it also 
to the pilot that guided the ship through such difficulties ! (Prolonged 
cheering.) 

You have not forgotten how the generous sympathies of our guest were 
awakened in behalf of the noble Hungarian-, in their immortal resistance 
against the force of barbarism. And sure 1 am there is not a heart here 
that has not treasured up the contents of that world-renowned letter to 
Chevalier Hiilsemann, in answer to the intimations of threats by Austria 
to treat our diplomatic agent as a spy ! What American was not proud of 
being the countryman of the author of that letter ? (Cheers upon cheers 
silenced the speaker for some time.) 

I confess I cannot now think of that letter without recollecting the sen- 
sations a particular part of it produced upon my risible faculties. I mean 
the comparison between the territories and national importance of the 
House of Hapsburgh and those of the United States of America. (A uni- 
versal shout of merriment here interrupted the speaker again and again, 
and prevented him from proceeding for some time.) 

But I must stop the enumeration of the great deeds in the glory of 
which we all participate, and by the results of which the whole civilized 
world has been benefitted. I must stop, or the setting sun would leave me 
still at the task, and the rising sun would find it unfinished. 

The same soul-absorbing devotion to the country and to the Constitution, 
as its anchor of safety, has been exhibited so recently and so remarkably, 
that no one can have forgotten it. In the view which I present of the mat- 
ter, it is quite immaterial whether we regard our guest as having been right 
or wrong. He deemed the course he took to be the only one permitted to 
him by his sense of duty. On the other side were the strong feelings with 
which, as a Northern man, he had always sympathized ; there also were 
the friends of his youth and of his age ; the troops of ardent and devoted 
admirers ; all whose love was equal to their reverence ; all the associations 
and affections of life were clustered there ; while on the other side a feeling 
of enmity, engendered by former contests and the defeat of all their 
schemes, nothing to allure or invite, but every thing to repel except one, 
and that was the Constitution of the country ; that, as he conscientiously 
believed, required him to interpose and prevent a breach of faith, as well 
as of the organic law, ami avert a civil war that he believed was impend- 
ing. He hesitated Dot a moment, but at once marched up to the deadly 
breach, and v, is i> adj to Bacrifice upon his country*- altar, more than life, 
\ thing that could render life worth detaining. 



25 

My friends, whatever other view may be taken of that step, every one 
knows that it conformed to the whole plan of his public life to know no 
North, no South, where the Constitution was in question ; and there is not 
a heart in this assembly that will not respond to my voice when I pro- 
nounce it heroism ; heroism of the most sublime order. It can be com- 
pared only to that of the Great Reformer who, when advised not to proceed 
to the Diet that was convoked to condemn him, declared that if fifty thou- 
sand legions of devils stood in the way, go he would ! (Prolonged and 
universal shouts.) 

How poor and insignificant are all our efforts to express our appreciation 
of such a character and of such services. They have sunk deep in our 
hearts ; they will sink deeper still in the hearts of the unborn millions 
who are to people this vast continent ; and when he and we sleep with our 
fathers, his name will reverberate from the Atlantic to the Pacific, as the 
defender of the Constitution and of his country. 

Gentlemen, I give you a sentiment which I think will be drank in bum- 
pers and standing. (The whole assembly rose at once with acclamation:) 

"The Constitution of the United States, and Daniel Webster, inseparable 
now, and inseparable in the records of time and eternity." 



26 



Mr. WEBSTER rose to respond, and the whole company started from 
their Beats, and gave him three times three cheeis. Mr. W. said: 

I know, gentlemen, vrery well how much of the undeserved compliment, 
or I may - lj eulogy, which you have heard from my honorable friend at 
the hi ad of the table, is due to a personal and political friendship, which 
has tinued for many years; of course, I cannot but most profoundly 

thank him for the manner in which he has expressed himself. Gentle- 
man, what .-hall /say ? What shall / say to this outpouring of kindness? 
I am overwhelmed. 1 have no words. I cannot acknowledge the truth of what 
ha- been said, yet I hardly could find it in my heart to deny it. [Loud cheer- 
ing.] It is overstated. It is overstated. But, that I love the Constitution 
of the country; that I have a passion for it, the only political passion that 
ever entered into my breast; that I cherish it day and night; that I live on its 
healthful, saving inlluences, and that I trust never, never, never, to cease 
to heed it till I go to the grave of my fathers, is as true as you sit here. 
[Turning to Mr. Spencer.] [Cheers, long and loud.] I do not suppose I 
am born to any considerable destiny, [cheers and laughter,] but my desti- 
ny attaches me to the Constitution of the country. I desire not to outlive 
it. 1 desire to render it some service. And, on the modest stone that 
shall mark my grave, whether within my native New Hampshire, or my 
vlassachusetl , I wish no other epitaph than this : while he lived, 
did what he could to support the Constitution of his country. [Re- 
newed cheering.] I confess to you that as to mere questions of politics, 
\pediency, I take my share in them, as they have gone along, 
in th of in;, political life, which is now fast running through. 

But 1 have felt no anxiety, no excitement ; nothing has made me lie 
awake at night, when it is said honest men sleep, except something 
that concerned the pr< of the Union! The Constitution of the 

United States! What is thereon the whole earth; what is there that so 

,i under heaven; what is there that the civiliz- 

ilized, liberty loving people of the world can look at, and do 

look at, so much at il and glorious instrument, bolden up to their 

. ing over this western hemisphere, and darting its rays 

throughout the world, the Constitution of the United States of America ! 

it cheering In Massachusetts, in New York, in Washington, 

are athwart the w hole lna\ ens; arc they not .-ecu in all Ame- 

il "i Bui ■ . and honored in Russia, in 

, in all the countries of the oriental world? 



27 

[Cheers.] What is it that makes you and I here, to-day, so proud as we 
are of the name of America? What is it? It is a miracle; the achieve- 
ment of half a century, by wise men under propitious circumstances, act- 
ing from patriotic motives; a miracle achieved on earth and in view of all 
nations; the establishing of a Government, taking hold on a great conti- 
nent; covering ample space for fifty other governments; having 25,000,000 
of people, intelligent, prosperous, brave, able to defend themselves against 
united mankind, and to bid defiance to the whole of them; a noble monument 
of republican honor and power, and of republican success, that throws a shade, 
and sometimes a deep and black shade, over the monarchies, and aristocra- 
cies, and despotisms of Europe. [Cheers.] Who is there, who is there from 
the poles to the Mediterranean, despot, aristocrat, autocrat, who is there 
that now dares to speak reproachfully or in tonesof derogation of the Gov- 
ernment of the United States of America ? [Cheers.] There is not one. And 
if we may judge, my friends, of the success of our system of government, 
from the regard it attracts from all nations, we may flatter ourselves that 
in our primitive republicanism, in our representative system, in our de- 
parture from the whole feudal code, and all the peculiarities of aristocratic 
and autocratic power, from all the show and pageantry of courts, we shall 
hold ourselves up like the face of the sun, not marred by inscriptions, but 
bright in glory, and glittering in the sight of all men. [Cheers.] And so 
we will stand, so shine, and when the time comes when I shall be gath- 
ered to my fathers, and you to yours, that eternal, unfading sun of Ameri- 
can Liberty and Republicanism, as steady in its course as the sun in the 
heavens, shall still pour forth its beams for the enlightenment of mankind. 
[Vociferous applause.] 

Gentlemen, I again thank you for the manner in which you have been 
pleased to receive the sentiment complimentary to me by my friend. I 
thank you, thank him. Gentlemen, I am happy to be here, in this ancient 
city. Of course, I like to see my Yankee brethren here, and a great many 
of them. [Laughter; a voice, "we have a codfish and pumpkin down 
here."] I have no objection to see the recent importations, so to describe 
them, come from where they may; because I am of opinion, and have 
expressed it again and again, that we have got to that stage in our affairs, 
that the world has reached that point in the system of change and innova- 
tion, that we are brought to this, that we have nothing to do but say to the 
inhabitants of the ancient world, the Irish, the Welch, the German, gen- 
tlemen, come; and the fact is, the cry is still they come. [Laughter and ap- 
plause.] There are people enough imported into New York, twice a year, 
to make a city as large as old Salem or Naumkeag in Massachusetts. Every 
big ship brings them to our shores, and off they start to Wisconsin. Well, 



28 

they come, and whether they come from Dublin, Cork, or Kerry, they are 
wit happy to stay where they are. If they come from the north of Ire- 
land, if they have a little of the canny Scotch in them, [the rest of this 
sentence was lost to the Reporter, from the noise in the stieet.] Every 
steamboat brings them, and every packet; and when you think they are 
all here, the cry is " still they come." Well, we must meet this as well 
as we can. Very many of them are excellent persons. [Much that Mr. 
\V. -aid in continuation on this head, was lost to the Reporter.] I, con- 
tinued Mr. Webster, am a New England man. I am of the Anglo-Saxon 
race ; but it is my good fortune to be connected with a lady in life who has 
a little touch of the old Knickerbocker. [Laughter.] I am happy to know- 
that among this company there are many persons of Dutch descent. I 
honor them all, and I accord to them credit for honesty, for sobriety of 
character, and for the great aid they have lent to the progress of popula- 
tion and prosperity in this and neighboring States. 

. Webster here passed to the subject of the Union and its defence.] 
With my dying breath, (said he,) if I have my senses, my last prayer shall 
be, Heaven save my country and Government. I hear the cry of disunion, 
secession. The secession of individual States, to my mind, is the most ab- 
surd of all ideas. I should like to know how South Carolina is to get out of 
this Union. Where is she to go? [Laughter and cheers.] The commer- 
cial people of Charleston say, with truth and propriety, if South Caro- 
lina secedes from the Union, we secede from South Carolina. [Re- 
newed laughter.] The thing is absurd. A separate secession is an ab- 
surdity. It could not take place. It must lead to war. But, then, I do 
admit the possibility that a great mass of the southern States, if they should 
come so far north as to include Virginia, might make a southern confede- 
ration. But it would put Virginia up to all she knows to accomplish it. 
[Laughter.] Because more than half of Virginia lies on the west .-lope 
of the Alleghanies, and is connected with the valley of the Mississippi, its 

le and interests, rather than with those who live on tide water. Do 
they think that the great western slope of the Alleghanies is tobe included 
in a secession movement? Nevertheless it is a most serious consideration. 
All know what would be the result of any dismemberment of this Union, 
large or small. The philosophic poet tells us that in the frame of things 

e as, beneath us, and around us, there are connexions, mutual de- 
ad relations, which link them together in one great chain of 
existencies, beginning from the throne on high, and running down to the 
low< There seems to be some analogy to this with our 

iation here as separati States; independent yet connected; revolving 
yel mutually bound one with another. And what 



29 

he poet says of the great chain that holds all together in the moral, in- 
ellectual, and physical world, is applicable to this chain of States, 

-whatever link you strike, 



Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike. 

[This sentiment drew out long continued cheering.] 

Now, gentlemen, it is not for me to do much more, nor attempt much 
more, on this theatre of action. I look on to see what others shall do, and 
to see what the rising generation shall do. I look on to see what the 
young men of the country are determined to do. I see them intelligent, 
regardless of personal objects, holding on upon what their ancestors gave 
them, holding on with their whole strength to the institutions of the' 
country. I know that when I shall slumber in the dust, the institutions 
of the country will be free and safe; I know that the young men of the 
country can preserve the country. In the language of the old Greek 
orator, "the young are the spring-time of the people." I wish to leave 
my exhortation to the young men all over the country; to say to them, on 
you, young men of the Republic, the hopes, the independence, the Union, 
the honor of the country, entirely depend. May God bless you. In 
taking leave of you, whilst I shall never forget the pleasure this occasion 
has given me, I give you as a sentiment: 

"The young men of Albany, the young men of this generation, and of the suc- 
ceeding GENERATIONS — MAY THEY LIVE FOREVER, BUT MAY THt CONSTITUTION AND THE 

Union outlive them all. 1 ' 

Cheer upon cheer followed the reading of this sentiment, and the Band 
struck up the "Star Spangled Banner." 



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